The cost of installing a rooftop solar system on detached residential property dropped by between $600-$900 each year, until 2020, with a price of $4,550 from around $9,300 in 2014.
In 2021, the price for installing a rooftop solar system rose by $700 — a cost not seen since 2018. “We don’t expect these costs to go back down now until 2023,” Attaurrahman Ojindaram Saibasan, Power Analyst at GlobalData, says.
The trend that saw rooftop solar prices decrease between 2013 and 2020 came about because of an increase in the supply of solar cells and modules. Therefore, logistics constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise in the price of raw materials and a sharp increase in solar PV system prices in 2021.
The delay in shipments, combined with a lack of availability of workforce, caused a major hindrance in the value chain. Cost is expected to moderately increase in 2022, before declining gradually between 2023 and 2030 thanks to advancements in technology, the reduction of component posts, and the increasing scale of production.
A third of global rooftop solar cumulative capacity was installed in residential areas in 2020, with the rest present in the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment.
In 2020, the global rooftop cumulative solar PV capacity stood at 248.8 gigawatts (GW), which showed an increase of 23.8 percent compared to 2019. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for 53.5 percent of the market share—with China alone accounting for 12.4 percent of the global market. Europe, and North & South America (NA&SA) accounted for a respective 29.1 percent and 13.6 percent.
The common residential rooftop panels used are 340W. For a 1,200 sq ft home, nearly 10 to 12 panels are required, the lowest has been considered for the calculation.